


Girls' Day Out

by SpiritedYoungLady



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Road Trip, platonic fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-20 14:06:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6010387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiritedYoungLady/pseuds/SpiritedYoungLady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of snips and sketches from a Darcy and Jane “girls’ day out” in Albuquerque. Not much of a plot, just here-and-there snipits of two science ladies I love.  Occult books and caffeine are involved.<br/>Written for striking, for a MCU gen fic swap.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Girls' Day Out

**Author's Note:**

  * For [striking](https://archiveofourown.org/users/striking/gifts).



> Much thanks to Rachel, beradan, and cinnaatheart, who helped beta!  
> I've wondered for eons why so much in the MCU happens in New Mexico but we never see Albuquerque. A fun fact: Burqueños are pretty proud of The Avengers as it was filmed at our Albuquerque studio!

**Day 1, 5:30 AM, somewhere in America’s Heartland ******

“Hey.”  
Darcy squinted at Jane and mumbled something incoherent.  
"Do you know what we should do?"  
The sun was barely over the horizon, and Darcy, whose forehead was pressed against the glass window, saw corn and only corn for miles. She uncurled slightly from her nest in the passenger's seat. "You could let a girl sleep, maybe?"  
"We should do something fun together. Girls’ day out."  
Darcy pushed her head into the crack between the seat and the side of the car and cinched her hoodie down around her eyes. "This is fun," she mumbled. In the driver’s seat, Jane gulped the last mouthful of something fizzy and intensely caffeinated.  
"We're always doing research or fighting aliens or something, but we never grab coffee and chat."  
Darcy dragged herself back up to a seated position and resigned herself to watching corn for several hours, as Jane apparently thought she had slept enough. She put her feet on the dash and glanced at the empty can in the cup holder.  
" _’Grab coffee and chat?’_ You maybe had enough jumpy juice there?"  
"I'm just saying that we should take time to do something normal. You know, not life threatening."  
"Like?"  
Jane smiled. "What's in New Mexico?"  
"Uh. Sand? Aliens? Those weird little birds with the flat tails?"  
"Albuquerque, Darcy! Breaking Bad, Route 66, the Balloon Fiesta?"  
"Didn't we get stuck in traffic there once?"  
"That's it! That's exactly my point. We're always off with SHIELD but we never do anything fun."  
Dary crossed her arms. "Are you going all buddy movie on me? You’re sure this isn't the caffeine talking."  
"We cut off twelve hours by driving through the night. We’ll have a whole day in Albuquerque with no SHIELD, no Avengers, no work! Trust me. It’ll be great.” 

****Day 2, 6:47 am, Albuquerque, New Mexico** **

“You snore. Did you know that?” Jane said over breakfast.  
Darcy, who was trying valiantly not to let any of the innards of her burrito escape, looked up in consternation. “I do not!”  
“Yeah, you kinda do - ” Jane coughed suddenly, made a face, and stared at her own burrito. “Maybe the chili was a bad idea.”  
Darcy cleared her throat in an effort to fill the uncomfortable silence. “So, what do you want to do next?” Darcy poked at one of the tourist flyers that Jane had picked up at a gas station. “Breaking Bad tour?”  
Jane shrugged. “Sure, if you wanna.”  
“Well what do you want to do?”  
Jane shifted a little and took a long sip of her coffee. “I haven’t actually seen Breaking Bad.”  
Darcy pointed at her with her fork. “You were the one who mentioned it!”  
“Well I’ve heard of it! I don’t actually live under a rock.”  
“Alright. We’ll do something else. As long as I’ve got coffee, I’ll be happy.” 

****Day 2, 10:51 am, Sandia Peak Tramway** **

For a woman with no children and no younger siblings, Jane had an uncanny ability to sense when people near her were climbing something dangerous. She had been trying to avoid looking down the long, long distance from the tram to the foothills below, but her eyes snapped open in an instant. “Darcy! Don’t stand there!”  
“What? We’re in a tram!” she said without turning.  
“We’re 70 stories up!”  
Darcy glanced over her shoulder at Jane just long enough to say “Nice view” before turning back to the window.  
Shortly after, she was spread out over half the bench, eyes squeezed shut. “Maybe that drink was a bad idea,” she mumbled. “You said that thing had five shots?"  
A tracksuited, grandmotherly woman stared at Darcy over her glasses, looking more than a little impressed.  
Jane gripped the edge of her seat and closed her eyes. "You had a coffee."  
“Coffee comes in shots!”  
Darcy made finger guns at the woman across from her. “Five. I had five shots,” she said proudly.  
The woman raised her gray eyebrows even higher, and Darcy grinned. 

****Day 2, 3:43 pm** **

Darcy lay on the tattered calico fainting couch, a pile of used books on her chest. “Did you know we made a record for the aliens and sent it into space? And we gave them instructions on how to build a turntable?”  
“I did know that, actually.” Jane was sprawled on the floor, leaning against the edge of the couch with a Carl Sagan book propped on her knees.  
“Well, didjyou know that they were going to build this giant ship the size of the Empire State Building in space?” She flipped a page. “I should tell Stark that, if I ever see him again. He’d probably eat that up.  
“He’d probably try to build it himself.”  
Darcy fumbled around for another book, eventually landing on _Occult Rituals for Advanced Practitioners_.  
“Ooh,” she whispered. “Advanced practitioners!” 

****Day 2, 5:27 pm** **

“Darcy. Hey, Darcy. We’ve gotta get going.”  
Darcy lay with one foot over the back of the fainting couch and _Occult Rituals for Advanced Practitioners_ pressed to her face. “What?” she mumbled without looking up.  
“We’ve got to go! We’re supposed to meet the driver in half an hour on the other side of town!”  
“Did you know that there’s this demon that you can summon and he’ll give you the ability to communicate with animals?” Darcy sat up and groaned. “Oh, that coffee was probably a bad idea...”  
“Darcy, we need to leave!”  
Darcy fumbled for a twenty and left the bookstore proud owner of her first occult book.  
After several minutes of quiet driving she nudged Jane, grinning wickedly. "Hey. What do you think happens if a god summons a demon?”  
“Promise me you’ll never find out.”  
“I’m just asking!” 

****Day 3, 12:34 am** **

“Why is everything out here so far apart?” Darcy had enjoyed her twelve hours of freedom and sky and coffee in Albuquerque, but now they were in an armored, bullet proof SHIELD car, somewhere deep in the New Mexico desert.  
“More room for the aliens,” mumbled Jane, her head pressed against the opposite window.  
“Hey Jane,” said Darcy, the excitement of an idea waking her up a little. “Roswell’s in New Mexico, right?”  
“I think it’s pretty far away.”  
“But next time we’re here, if we drove really fast...”  
Jane smiled sleepily. “Alright. Next time we’re out here. Roswell.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Facts/details, if you're interested in that sort of thing:
> 
> -That five shot drink has five shots of espresso, comes only in large, and is available at Satellite coffee if you’re ever in Albuquerque. It’s called a Black Velvet. If you ever want to experience a caffeine hangover, that'll do it.  
> -The golden record that Darcy mentions was designed by Carl Sagan and was sent on Voyager 1 and 2. We did, in fact, send instructions to the aliens on how to build a machine to play the record.  
> -The demon Darcy mentions is a Goetic demon called Camio. (I would not recommend summoning it, even if you're only human.)


End file.
